Ares, Titan & Me 3: Discovery by Jason Cleaver (argo@easynet.co.uk) A Highlander/X-Files Crossover I don't own the X-Files, Melissa Scully or Highlander: The Series. FOX, Chris Carter, 1013 and Rysher do. Eve Mallory and Roger DeVries however, are mine. Comments, suggestions can be sent to ***************************************************** The back door to the cabin banged open, and Melissa walked out. She descended the short flight of stairs onto the grass and just kept walking forward. Unseeing, she just kept going; registering the stone monolith in time to go around. Only when she came to the sharp slope did she finally stop, lower herself to the ground, draw her knees up to her chest and stare at things that had nothing to do with the view in front of her. Immortal. Oh she'd wished she could live forever; didn't everyone when they were a child? When you were young enough to hope that the days would last forever, that your parents would always be there, when everything held wonder and fascination. Then you grew up. And found that living forever was a child's dream. People grow old and die. She'd found that out one cold, windy afternoon in January, standing by a grave, watching a wooden box being lowered into the ground; the last remnants of Gramma Scully. Old enough to know what had happened, young enough to wish that Gramma would come back. She believed in the soul living forever, moving into different bodies or different planes of existence. Sometimes, she could even see and hear them if they were old enough. Never the young ones; she'd never understood why not. She'd always known that one day she'd die, old and frail, surrounded by grandchildren maybe. But now that would never happen. None of it. No children and no death. Not for her. She'd just go on, day after day, year after year, century after century. She would watch friends and lovers grow older and die, while she would stay the same age forever. Unless someone took her head. The whole thing sounded so ridiculous! A whole other society of human beings, living forever, fighting each other, waiting for some "Gathering" to come. What was it Eve had said....? There can be only one? It was like Holy Writ to these people! Two commandments to be followed, handed down from Teacher to Student. There can be only One. Thou shalt not fight on Holy Ground. She'd have to learn how to fight, Eve had said. Train in the use of a sword, to know how to cut off heads, to kill without mercy, without hesitation. To shut out that small part of you that would scream in denial at each death. She couldn't do it. Couldn't think of a single instance where she'd want to kill *anyone*, not even the bastard who'd shot her.... She felt that strange swirl of power, that excited tingle rush through and around her, seemingly making all the hairs on the back of her neck raise. She'd felt it once before at the hospital, driving away with Eve. Which meant... "Nice view isn't it?" Eve commented sinking down into the rich grass beside her. For the first time, Melissa focused outward. Eve was right. The slope was very sharp, seemingly only a few degrees short of vertical. At the bottom was a lake, but beyond that the countryside stretched away into the distance, until it reached a range of mountains. The day was sunny, but there were heavy clouds over them, and the patterns of light and shadow over plains and beyond was a sight to take the breath away. "Yes," She said finally, "It is." Eve didn't say anything for a while. Instead the two women stared out over the countryside, watching the effects of the moving cloud and sunlight. Finally, Eve spoke. "I'm sorry to unload all this at once," She said. "Normally, I wait before filling people in on the important things." Melissa looked over at her. "You've done this a lot?" Eve nodded. "Once or twice," She replied, with a faint smile. "Any of them still around?" The smile faded. "A few." Melissa was silent again, burying her head in her knees. Eve watched her for a moment, then stood up. "I'm going into town," She said, "Want to come?" In the end, Melissa did come, and discovered that "going into town" meant driving in a battered jeep for an hour and a half, first along a dirt track, then a gravel road, and finally a tarmaced road. She only knew they were at the city boundary when she saw the sign KINGSLEY: POP 12,567 by the side of the road. Finally, Eve pulled the jeep into a small parking lot outside a small mall. The two women climbed out and Eve locked the door. Then they walked towards the low building. The Buzz came without warning, shuddering through and around them, bringing chills on a warm day. Eve was turning in a circle, looking all around, even as it faded. Melissa turned to look too, and saw a man leaning against a red Camaro not too far away, watching them. Somehow, she *knew* this was the Immortal they'd felt; she couldn't have explained why, she just did. "Eve," She said quietly. Eve turned, saw the man, and seemed to relax slightly. "I'll meet you inside," She said in the same low tone. She saw Melissa's face. "It's OK, he's not carrying a sword. We're just going to talk." For a moment, Melissa looked like she might argue, then she headed towards the sliding doors. Once she was out of the way, Eve began to walk forward slowly. The man came away from his car, and did the same. They met in the middle, by a blue TransAm. For long seconds, neither spoke. A wind came out of nowhere, blowing Eve's hair in long streams. As she pulled it back, the man watched her calmly. "Roger DeVries," He said. "Eve Mallory." His eyes flicked towards the mall. "How did you know what she was? I never felt you." Eve was startled. This was the Immortal she'd sensed outside the hospital! How, in the name of the Three, had he found her? True, she'd made no attempt to hide her trail, but she would have expected longer than 4 days before someone tracked them down. "I have contacts," She replied. "Who are they?" DeVries asked. "What makes you think I'd tell you?" Eve was growing more and more puzzled by this man. Something was going on here, more than the usual Immortal business. DeVries frowned. "Look," He said, "Just tell me who you're working for, and I'll go, all right? I'm not looking to challenge you or the girl, but the people I work for want to know how you knew she was Immortal and who your employers are. You weren't there, so you must've had help." "I'm not working for anyone," Eve replied. DeVries looked at her for a long moment. "That won't satisfy them," He said. "I know these men, they won't stop till I bring back something they can believe in. Just tell me who you're recruiting for." "I am not working for anyone." Eve repeated. "I will swear by whatever you want that I am acting alone in this. I can't tell you who told me she was Immortal." <> "Who do you work for?" She asked. "And why are you recruiting Immortals?" "I was told to. There are about 10 of us now. They just ring and say go to this hospital and see this person. I go, and either they are or they aren't. I think they're looking for people who are adopted or foundlings in the records." Eve was getting more and more concerned. Memories were nudging her slightly, of Ancient Greece and a group of men under the control of... <> "Does this group have a name?" She asked again. DeVries replied. "Why d'you want to know if you aren't working for someone else?" Eve took a step forward, the air around her seeming to boil with the rage that now simmered just below the surface. DeVries thought himself a brave man, but he felt small and insignificant before this woman, shorter than himself, but made huge by her anger. "Give. Me. The. Name." Eve's voice was still quiet, each word bitten off. DeVries hesitated. Melissa wandered into the record store, not at all sure what, if anything, she was looking for. She was concerned about Eve; no matter that the other immortal hadn't had a sword, or that they were unlikely to get into a fight in a semi-crowed parking lot. Her inner-sense had told her that the man was shrouded in darkness. It wasn't his, but something he did that covered him. Something that he couldn't walk away from, that tarnished his soul beyond hope of retrieval... She stopped, staring at the racks of CD's and tapes. She'd never gotten so much before! Usually it was just vague impressions, never something like that. This whole thing was just.... "Can I help you?" Melissa jumped, startled. There was a store worker standing beside her, a young woman in her twenties, blond, slightly vapid looking and chewing something, probably gum. There was an older woman behind the counter, currently serving a customer. "No," She said, "I'm just looking." "Anything in particular?" The girl asked. "Anything rock-ish," Melissa replied. The girl screwed up her face in thought, then led her down one aisle, picked out a CD from the rack and handed it to Melissa. "That should do you!" She said with a smile. The CD was "New Light Through Old Windows" by someone called Chris Rea. Melissa thanked the girl and was about to try to decide between Enya's latest offering, a Bjork album, or anything by Suzanne Vega, when she felt The Buzz. Looking up, she saw Eve enter the mall and look around. She moved to the entrance and waved at the other woman. The sun was low on the horizon by the time the jeep pulled up beside the cabin. Eve hadn't said much during the shopping trip and nothing on the way back. Melissa had almost said something during the return journey, but Eve's silence was almost tangible; it seemed to dampen all other sounds around. When they'd brought the shopping in, Melissa decided to do a little exploring of the cabin and it's surroundings. She started outside first. For a start, the cabin was surrounded by a stone circle, quite a wide one, with a pathway leading to the centre lined by a row of smaller stones on either side. What Melissa found strange was that the cabin sat in the centre of the circle. The grounds that the cabin and circle stood however, was not all there was. Outside the circle was a large building, slightly bigger than the cabin, with high vertical windows. She made her way over to it, passing through the circle as she did so. She tried the handle on the door and it turned under her hand. She wasn't sure what she expected, but it wasn't what she found. Mirrors covered the entire length of the wall to her right, with a barre running the length of it. Melissa had seen similar in a hundred different aerobics centres. The floor was wood, except for a squared off area in the middle, surrounded by thick black tape and padded mats. On the other side, standing away from the walls, were various items of exercise equipment; of a standard not often seen outside of a gym. But it was what covered the wall that caught and held Melissa's attention. Swords. Made in various shapes, lengths and metals they hung from pegs and carefully positioned in some indefinable way that Melissa couldn't fathom. Each were polished and sharpened so that each seemed to gleam in their own captured light. Some were purely functional, others spoke of great craftsmanship. They did not speak of death and battles survived as she had thought such things would, but instead she got a sense of just how old their owner was, how many years she had seen, how many friends had died, how, somehow, the only things she could rely on to be there where these pieces of metal. "Beautiful, aren't they?" Eve spoke from the doorway. Melissa nodded. "I didn't think..." "I know." Eve said quietly with a smile. "Come on inside. You can come back tomorrow to start your training." Melissa turned. "Eve, I can't..." "Kill?" Eve interrupted. Melissa nodded. "Don't worry, I won't make you do anything you don't want to do; you need to get fit anyway. And this is the best equipped place to do it." The next morning, having borrowed Eve's CD player, she returned to the gym and started slowly, with the weight machines. It had been a while since she'd done any serious exercise; moving back to Washington after Dana had recovered from her coma, may have brought her closer to what remained of her family, but she hadn't had a chance to find a gym that fit her reduced salary. And jogging wasn't the same. The CD played in the background and after a while, Melissa got up, took out Enya and replaced it with the Chris Rea one. The sounds of the guitar riffs and the cigarette-and-whisky-rough voice coming from the speakers made her smile as she returned to the machines. ***** Eve stared at nothing, while staring at the phone. Eventually, she reached out and dialled a number. After a while, the line was picked up. "It's me." ...... "Mallory. Eve Mallory." ...... "Fi...No it's not. I need a favour." ....... "I need to talk to him, and I've got someone here. Can you...?" ....... "Because she might be the One." ..... "Yes, I'm sure. The Three led me to her." ..... "Because if it was a man, I wouldn't call you, would I?" Eve snapped. ..... "I'm sorry," she apologised. "This has me on edge." ...... "Not over the phone. Can you come?" ........... "Good. Do you want picking up?" ..... "I'll see you then." She replaced the receiver and looked around. She'd better tell Melissa... The CD finished one song and hissed silently for a moment, then the guitar started up again. Melissa was taking a break, head buried in a towel. Then the words pulled her head out to stare at the machine. Driving down from the highland line we done some gigs on the Clyde and the Tyne They'd flown us in from a Hamburg strip The taste of Dusseldorf still on our lips And on the bus is a friend of mine Eve approached the gym, hand reaching for the partially open door. We go way back to the scene of the crime We sit up front and share a cigarette and try to remember what we tried to forget He say "do you remember?" He say "do you recall?" I say yeah I remember, I remember it all The door was open and she was inside, half listening, looking for Melissa, when the next words, hit her like a tidal wave. Every time that cold wind blows Every time I hear the sound Late night train shunting down by the river I remember Windy Town The voice and the words, filled with longing and memories shattered the walls around her own buried memories, filling her senses, paralysing her. She had just enough sense of self left to whisper: "Turn it off..." We come so far and we move so fast making hay, see it all go past Round the world and round again up and down that gravy train, yeah One leg refused to hold her, and she went down. Melissa looked up, saw Eve in the doorway, holding onto the frame for dear life. She jumped to her feet and was at the other woman's side in a moment. "Eve! What's wrong?" But every time that cold wind blows Every time I hear the sound The east coast crosswinds on the cold wet stone I remember Windy Town, Oh Windy Town "Turn it off..." Melissa didn't ask why. She went got up and returned to the machine. The freezing corners and the empty streets the burning passions and the cold wet feet Three tricky miles home every night dodging from the shadows underneath those amber lights No car for kissing and nowhere to go except inside each other and I loved... The machine shut down. Melissa went back to Eve's side. She was already getting to her feet, her face loosing the twisted expression of pain and sadness. Smoothing itself back into the gentle face she'd seen since she'd woken up again. "What was that all about?" Melissa asked. "Nothing." "That wasn't nothing, Eve," Melissa said. "How the hell do you expect me to trust you if you won't tell me everything!" Anger flashed in Eve's eyes. "You want to know everything?" Melissa nodded, suddenly unsure as to whether she really did. "Then follow me!" With that, Eve turned around and headed back to the cabin. After a moment, Melissa followed. TO BE CONTINUED IN Ares, Titan & Me 4: Memories argo@easynet.co.uk naXis#002 (The Brain), M&S, Dragon Posse, EMXC, XFF, Melissketeer I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it! "The Truth is out there - and it's got bloody great teeth!" "Do not worry about the bullet that has got your name on it. It will hit you and it will kill you, no questions asked. The rounds to worry about are the ones marked: TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN."